Ernie Els
Though he remains the most pleasant personality of this group, Els' resiliency has been tested immensely in recent years. There was his 2000 season when he was second to Singh at the Masters, then distant runner-up to Woods at the Opens — both U.S. and British. Even more painful was 2004, when he was second to Mickelson at the Masters, badly outplayed by Goosen in the final round of the U.S. Open, and a hard-luck outsider to the PGA Championship playoff, won by Singh. Yes, he's got three majors, but his inability to shake free of his fiercest rivals has cost him a few others.

Retief Goosen
He upstaged Woods and halted a major winning streak at four when he won the 2001 U.S. Open, but he couldn't match that effort at the 2002 Masters. Tied with Woods through 54 holes, the quiet Goosen shot 74 and watched Woods (71) slip into a third green jacket. Goosen, down by one through 36 holes, caught Mickelson and breezed to an easy win at BellSouth in 2002 and he stood tall against the left-hander at a brutally tough Shinnecock Hills during last summer's U.S. Open, too. His final-round 64 at the Tour Championship last November left many observers speechless — and third-round leader Woods in second place.

Phil Mickelson
His Masters win, of course, came at Els' expense a year ago, surely wiping out his other memorable win — that coming in 2000 when he went 65-66 on the weekend to storm to victory in the Tour Championship, overshadowing the Singh-Woods duel in the final group of the day. Down the stretch at the '01-02 Masters, he made tactical errors and couldn't catch up to Woods. In the 2004 British, Els made the shots down the closing holes that the left-hander needed to make and his inability to hold on to a two-shot lead over Woods through 54 holes of the Ford Championship at Doral makes you wonder if he still is intimidated by Woods. We know this after Augusta, he's not exchanging Christmas cards with Singh.

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Vijay Singh
Fearless at all times, he's even more so when the opposition is Woods. There may not have been fire in his eyes when he won a head-to-head duel at last year's Deutsche Bank Championship, but it was a certainly a visible simmer. Perhaps less venom, but certainly holding off Els at the 2000 Masters was a big win for him, as was the PGA last August when Mickelson and Els were right there, too. But he couldn't catch Woods back on that Monday finish of the 2001 Players Championship and it was that double-cross, pull-hook into the water at the 14th that prompted him to spend even more hours at the range to get better. In his limited spare time, he might be prone to go into the lockerroom and take a 5-iron to Mickelson's shoes.

Tiger Woods
An observation was made at the final round of Doral this year, something to the effect that it was a head-to-head duel between "a player who knows he's the best in the world and a guy who thinks he's the best in the world." It's what cuts to the heart of the matter with Woods — he loves nothing more than battles with Mickelson, Els, Singh, and Goosen to reinforce the notion of his superiority. Sometimes he loses (to Singh at the '04 Deutsche Bank; Goosen at the '04 Tour Championship; Els at the '02 Doral; Mickelson at the '00 Buick Invitational, which halted his memorable winning streak at six). But more times than not he wins.

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Part 5: Popularity

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